Today is a bit of a testament to one of our many bootcampers who initially done very well with us. For client confidentiality reasons today we’ll be changing her name to Dawn.

In her first month of June Dawn achieved all of the following feats and was pleased with her success:

Dawn’s Mighty Achievements:

Bodyfat % Down: Lost 1%

Weight Down: Lost 8.4 lbs weight

BMI Down: 1.3

Body Inches Lost: 3 Inches

For Dawn the most important feat was the weight-loss of 8.4 which was way quicker than was set by her Sidcup Personal Trainer Andy.

Andy congratulated Dawn of course but quietly worried about what may be coming around the corner.

2 Weeks went by and Dawn worked hard at her Sidcup bootcamp sessions. Andy noticed that Dawn was becoming frustrated and a bit emotional and less likely to get straight into the exercises.

Was she becoming complacent???? NO

Did she think she didn’t have to work anymore and just turn-up and pick up inch-busting results? NO

An upset Dawn eventually revealed to Andy that she was now not seeing anymore weight-loss results and that it was driving her to making the wrong decisions……Blowing out at a music festival and not eating right etc…..

In fact further investigation by Andy revealed that she probably wasn’t getting enough food and balance in the first month and she had actually LOST TOO MUCH MUSCLE. Her body was liturally eating it’s own muscle as well as a eating a similar amount of fat first month and therefore was crashing her metabolism:

The reasons for this were quite clear to Andy:

1) Dawn had mostly ate healthy foods in month 1 but had failed to place the right types of foods together

2) She actually was still not getting enough calories in (probably 200-500 cals short each day) which made her body retain fat and burn muscle.

3) She was still at times going too long without getting food in due to adjusting to her new nutritional regime which Andy hoped would eventually become her new lifestyle.

To Dawn, it didn’t seem to make sense that she could eat plenty of tasty food (real food), be full up right throughout the day and eat every 2-3 waking hours.

Dawn was simply used to avoiding food all morning (or eating like a pauper) and starting to eat like a ravenous bear at lunch followed quickly by filth laden treats due to her not managing her cravings.

Andy advised that over the next few days Dawn should:

1) Get more balance into each meal and snack

2) Eat a meal or snack at least every 2-3 hours

3) Aim to be close to her calorie limit set for fat-loss, which for her stats and activity level was 1600 daily calories:

4) Send him an email with a couple of days nutrition just to make sure wasn’t making any common little mistakes.

Andy then decided to help Dawn by sending her a way to eat that would suit her and most people looking for energy balance. Andy requested that Dawn took instant action and email him a couple of typical days nutrition.

Andy sent her this reply email below hoping that she’d see what he saw (inluding Dawn’s foods):

Hey Dawn,

Apologies for late reply,

Okay lets look this over and analyse meal by meal and give pluses, minuses and alternatives:

What we are mainly looking for is at pretty much EVERY mealtime/snacktime to have a balance of each of the following from mostly natural sources:

Protein: To repair/build lean muscle

Carbohydrates: To give energy to get through the day

Natural Fats: Adding these in means that the body will not be in search of fat sources and will help your metabolism to ironically lose fat

Veggies: For vitamins and minerals which help regulate the bodies processes.

You simply have to make sure that you keep close to or just under the calorie limit set in my nutrition email and do the above and you will lose the weight.

Okay here’s the analysis:

Breakfast : 2 boiled eggs, 1 tomatoe and 2 ryvitas

Getting 2 of 3 macronutrients which is okay. Protein is great in eggs, decent carbs in ryvita (ryvita dark is best option if you can get that). Tomato is great too.

Improvement would be to get in some decent fats such as a scrape of 100% natural butter (margerine or other tampered product is bad as made up and processed with added salt etc).

Snack: 1 banana

Banana is good but is mainly just carbs.

This meal is lacking in protein

This meal is lacking in fats

TRY 25g of nuts to go with the banana at this time. Most nuts have awesome protein and great natural fats in them.

TRY: Pecans, almonds, pecans, Brazils, Pestacios, cashews (unsalted)

AVOID: Salted nuts, dry-roasted.

AVOID: Over-eating these…. MAKE SURE TO Measure your portions for the week, place into mini bags and take 2 lots to work for each snack time.

Lunch: 1 tin of Tuna and salad, lettuce cucumber tomatoe and peppers

Is decent lunch. Has 2 out of 3 macro’s…. Protein in tuna and a nice array of diverse veg and salad.

Try and get a small amount of carbs in. Some new potatoes, A small sweet potato, perhaps a couple of dark ryvita’s, some butternut squash.

Snack: 1 nectarine & some nuts

Perfect Balance 100%…IMPORTANT….Make sure you know how much the nuts weigh though….. 20-25g would work for you (SO EASY TO OVER-EAT NUTS)

Dinner: 1 piece of grilled salmon & vegetables, broccoli & carrots.

Great dinner, getting in protein and vegetables. Is wise to lower carbs in the evening before bed and that is fine but make sure to have them again next morning (dark rye bread etc..) 100%

I’m also drinking between 2 and 2 and a half litres of water per day.

Great, could have 2.5 – 3.0 litres during summer as dehydrate quicker.

Quick question:

Did you feel hungry between any of these meals/snacks?

If so please give details and times you got hungry.

Regards, Andy

If you’d like to hear how things turn out for Dawn, please join disqus and make a comment below….. We need a minimum of 5 comments and we’ll let you know what happened next.

If you would like some help take a look at what Andy and his team of Sidcup Personal Trainers have done for your friends and neighbours here.